Portable chicken house and yard



July 5, 1949.

R. G. CLARK 'PORTABLE CHICKEN HOUSE AND YARD Original Filed Feb 9, 1940 Q; FEEL 2 Shets-$heet 1 A iarzzey July 5, 1949. R. G. CLARK 7 PORTABLE CHICKEN HOUSE AND YARD Original Fiieql Feb. 9, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 RVf/ 6'. c2 ARK, /4 W BY 9 5; D I Z3 Patented July 5, 1949 Ruth G. Clark, Oakland, Calif.

Substituted for application Serial. No. 318,144, February 9, 1940. This application November 5, 1948,. Serial No. 58,521

1 Claim. (Cl. 119-21) This invention: relates to a portable chicken house and yard and the present application is a substitute of an application for patent filed Feb. 9, 1940, Ser. No. 318,144, now abandoned.

When a. chicken house and yard are first erected, chickens remain in a healthy state but it has been found that after the first year, and often after a shorter period of' time, the chickens become sickly, contract various diseases to which they are subject, and the like.

This is due to the fact that the ground under the house with clean-cut: openings, at its backthe house and within theyard becomes foul and normally closed by boards which are: so mountedl sour and constitutes abreeding ground for worms, that they may be outwardly'and: upwardly germs, and other bacteria which attack the to open position. 7 healthy chickens, especially small Ones, and cause- Another object; ofczthe: invention is-r-ta provide them to become sick. the house and yardwithdoorwaysthrough which;

Therefore, it is one object of the invention to a person may e r ey fila'n'd 1 the 1 provide a house and yard which can be erected Ways being IlOrIIlalWI 103135601: y d -13 for use in a selected location and very easily mounted. moved to anotherlocation when the ground with- T inve on is illustra d n' t cc p nyin the yard and under the house has become ing drawin Whereim' sour or foul. It will thus be seen that when found 1 is a side: elevation. of the-house-and' y necessary, the house and yard may be moved t Fig. 2v is a vertical sectional viewtaken longisanother location, where the ground is fresh and tudinally through 1 Sa the! line 0f? the ground of the previous location treated and given time to recover its original healthy state Fig. 3 isa, horizontal sectional view on the-11118 before being again used. a 33 of Fig; 1.

Another Object of the invention is to provide Fig. 4. is a vertical:sectmnahvrew taken transthe house and yard with. side boards so mounted versely through 1511? yatrctflmvthellme4T4f7F1g= that they may be moved from. a lowered" ground- 5 1S a sectmnal' on hue of? engaging position along sides and ends of the v house and yard to a raised position where they 6 1s sectmnak F taken: transversely will not interfere withmovement of the house. thrqugh f 'f 1g; and. yard, from one site to another. It will thus 7 1S Veg-meal" sectmnal'vlewfia'ken l be Seen that the house d y may be a versely through theyardand showing the s1de shifted to a new location and the side boards t' raised m y then lowered to operative positions where they i 8 1s persfimwefvlew of 9 track will serve as guards to prevent dogs, cats, and g g g g j ggfg w showing the track gg g i i from entermgthe' yardfindkmmg' 0 sections connected: end to end relation to eaclr Another object ofthe invention is to provide other I t k f d t f th t k The yard, ndicated? in general-by the numeral s orme, Sec 1on5 am 0 e we 1, extends forwardly fionrthe: house .'=2".-and. en-- sectlons constltu'tmg s m t house closes a runway hayingsitsrear-portion' extend and yard and othefs bemg set In place m end to ing-under-the houseisorthatchickens;particularly? end engagement wlth each other when the house small chickens, may take shelter under the house and yard are to be rolled along the tracks to during inclement weather. The upper and lower another 1003111011- side bars 3 and-4 of the yard preferably formed Another object 0f the invention is 130 S0 locate confirmations of the upper and lower side bars the Side ds and t Wheels p yed that the 5 and 6 of the house but may be formed separately side boards will be located inwardly of the wheels therefrom, if desired, and it should be noted that and the tracks upon which said Wheels rest, thus the bars 5 extend rearwardly at a downward in-, permitting the side board to be easily swung cline so that the roof I of the house will slope vertically to raised or lowered position and also forwardly for proper drainage of water during causing the wheels and tracks to be located outrainy weather. Standards 8, 9 and W extend 2- side the yard whentheside boards. are lowered and the house and. yardr'are imposition for use.

Another object; ofi'rtheinvention; to provide: the house with a front wall: including. windows. and an upper ventilatonmovable: into and out-'oii closed position, there ,also being entrance OPEX'IP ings in the lowenportionof the. front-wall have ing closures serving asgangways. for'the entrance; when swung downwardly to opemposition.

Another object of; the. invention is to provide:

vertically between the upper and lower bars and there have also been provided upper and lower cross bars I and I2 secured at their ends to the side bars. It will thus be seen that the house and yard have a unitary frame and may be moved as a unit from one place to another when change of location is necessary.

In order to support the house and yard spaced upwardly from the ground and permit easy movement thereof to a new location, there have been provided wheels it carried by brackets M which are secured to the side bars and located at corners of the house and yard where they are preferably pivotally mounted so that the house and yard may be turned easily when they are to be moved, in case the new location is not directly ahead of or in back of the position from which they are to be moved. Other wheels, l5, carried by brackets l6 are located midway the width of the house. The house and yard are spaced upwardly from the ground an appreciable distance and, in order to prevent dogs, cats and other animals from entering under the house and yard, there have been provided guards I! and I8 along sides and ends of the house and yard. These guards or boards are connected along their upper edges to the side bars and the front and rear cross bars by hinges 9 and hooks 20 are provided for entering eyes 2| and securely but releasably holding the boards in lowered position where they serve very effectively to prevent animals from entering the runway and killing the chickens. When the hooks are released, the boards may be swung upwardly to folded position and releasably secured by fasteners 22, and the house and yard then rolled to another location. The wheels l rest upon base members or tracks 23 consisting of a number of sections 24. These track sections are of trough-like formation and each has a bottom 25 and side strips 26 which prevent the wheels from moving transversely off of the tracks. Hooks 2! are pivoted to the side strips at one end of each track section and at its other end the side strips of each track section are formed with sockets 28 to receive the hooks of an adjoining track section and securely but detachably hold the track sections in end to end engagement with each other. Since the wheels rest upon tracks when the house and yard are in a desired location, the wheels will not become embedded in the ground. When it is desired to move the yard and house, other track sections are mounted in alignment with track sections already in place and the house and yard can then be very easily rolled along the tracks to the new location, it being understood that after the house and yard have been rolled along the tracks a certain distance, track sections over which the wheels have moved may be detached and transferred to ends of the track sections upon which the wheels rest for further movement of the house and yard.

The house 2 has side walls 28 which may be 'formed of sheet material, boards, or the like, and

the rear wall 29 is formed of similar material. It should be noted, however, that the rear wall has horizontally extending sections 30 and 3| constituting closures which are mounted by hinges 32 for swinging movement outwardly and upwardly to open position permitting access to a shelf 33 under a perch 34 to clean the shelf of droppings which pass through the screen 35 and also allowing dirt to be swept from the floor through the opening normally closed by the door or closure 3|. A doorway 36 is formed through one side wall and normally closed by a door 31 which is hinged along one side in order that it may be opened or closed.

The front wall of the house is formed as shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 5. Referring to these figures, it will be seen that the front wall has sections formed as windows 38 which have their upper ends connected with a cross bar 39 by hinges 40 so that the windows may be swung outwardly and upwardly to open position indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2, when so desired, during warm weather, and allow air and light to enter the house. The cross bar 39 is spaced downwardly from the upper ends of the posts or standards 9, and between the bar 33 and the cross bar carried by posts 9, is a transom 4| mounted at its upper edge by hinges 42, so that it may be swung inwardly and upwardly to open position. A bar 43 extends vertically between the windows 33 with its upper end secured to the bar 39 and its lower end secured to a cross bar 44 carrying keepers for engagement by latches 45 by means of which the windows 38 are held closed. Under the cross bar 45 are wall sections 46 spaced from each other to provide entrances 41 through which chickens may enter and leave the house. These entrances are flush with the floor 48 of the house and, in order that chickens may easily enter and leave the house through these entrances, there have been provided runways 49. The runways consist of companion sections 50 and 5| connected by hinges 52, and since the sections 5| are mounted by hinges 53, the runways may be swung upwardly from the lowered position indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2, to raised position, in which position they constitute doors or closures for the entrances 41.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

In a portable chicken house and yard, a house. an enclosure extending from said house and defining a yard, wheeled members extending downwardly from the house and enclosure and supporting same for movement from one location to another, guards extending along marginal portions of the house and enclosure and pivoted at their upper edges for swinging movement downwardly and outwardly from raised position under the house and within the enclosure to lowered position for use with the wheeled members disposed externally of the guards, and means for releasably securing the guards in lowered position.

RUTH G. CLARK.

No references cited. 

